The ArtsPlay National Conference, held 4 December 2004 at the Craigmonie Centre, Glenurquhart High School, was attended by 70 people from a variety of sectors across Scotland. Attendees included artists, teachers, childcareworkers, statutory sector workers, members from Gaelic-speaking groups, voluntary organisations, colleges and artists’ organisations.
 

Workshops were provided by Artsplay Highland, Fèisean nan Gaidheal, Imaginate and The Wolf Trap Foundation. Presentations came from Kay Smith on ArtsPlay and Mimi Flaherty on Wolf Trap.

We had invited Wolf Trap over after finding a project named ARTSPLAY! on their website, and then discovered that there were some very strong similarities between their project and HI~Arts ArtsPlay.

Bryan Beattie gave an opening speech for the day, and aptly reminded us of the early days pre-ArtsPlay when artists like Alpha Munro were delivering workshops with young children in The Highlands. He demonstrated the Evangelical-like fervour of those involved in spreading access to the arts to communities around the rural areas of the North and praised everyone for their passion for the arts, and their ambition to give children memorable moments, life-skills, confidence and FUN! Bryan was of course keen to encourage this activity, having three young children of his own!

Kay’s presentation took everyone through the experience of delivering ArtsPlay over a two-year period around 10 regions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. She explained how the project was delivered, its’ benefits and how it had evolved from the pilot Stimulating Creativity. ArtsPlay was a training project, from each those involved in planning its delivery, also learnt a great deal.

Mimi Flaherty told us about The Wolf Trap Institute  for Early Learning Through the Arts and what it offers in the U.S The Institute was established in 1981 under a grant from the Head Start Bureau of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services. The goal of the program is to train early childhood professionals in the use of  performing arts techniques that help young children learn basic literacy and academic concepts as well as life skills.

The workshop presentations in the afternoon gave participants the opportunity to find out about the models each organisation works from and how those models have developed. Everyone was asked to consider a number of issues in relation to access to the arts for children and how we can deliver the arts to all children now.

It became clear that everyone attending felt strongly about children and their involvement in the arts and felt that there were a number of issues to consider and to act upon:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge”

• We need to educate adults to learn constantly, to see training as a life-long necessity
• With only 5 million people in Scotland surely it must be possible to deliver the arts to all children, regularly
• We need to see the links, develop exchange programmes, both national and international
• Teachers need better initial teacher-training –only 17.5 hours of training time is devoted to the arts in 4 years of education
• We need to acknowledge what happens in each locality and to work with what is available there
• We should build on the skills current organisations have developed
• We should focus on the creative process rather than arts per se
• We need to understand why people want to participate
• We need to create good structures to support organisations working with children

The conclusion of the Conference was to provide a mission statement to the Cultural Commission on children’s rights to the arts.
 

Information about the workshop providers is available on the following sites:

The Wolf Trap Foundation: www.wolftrap.org
Imaginate: www.imaginate.org.uk
Fèisean nan Gaidheal: www.feisean.org
ArtsPlay Highland: www.hi-arts.co.uk/artsplay